Hitherto, in the case of inserting a picture recorded on a film, etc. into, e.g., an insertion pattern, there is carried out a so called multiple exposure to allow the insertion pattern to be exposed to light in the state where the picture insertion area into which picture of printing (photographic) paper is inserted is light-shielded thereafter to carry out exposure by picture recorded on film, etc. in the state where the area except for the picture insertion area is light-shielded.
In addition to the above, in order to prepare a synthetic picture, a method using a general purpose computer, for example, is known. In accordance with such a method, a film is first read by, e.g., a film scanner, etc. to convert picture (pictorial image) recorded on the film into picture data to input it to the general purpose computer, etc. Then, picture editor which carries out editing of picture data, is used to insert picture data into the area designated by a user on an insertion pattern prepared in advance.
However, in the case of preparing a synthetic picture by the multiple exposure as described above, it is necessary to carry out a plural number of exposure operations and development operations of the printing paper. As a result, complicated operation is required. In addition, it takes a lot of time to prepare a synthetic picture. For this reason, it is difficult to change the position where the picture is synthesized and/or trimmed, for example, while confirming the prepared synthetic picture to carry out the picture synthesis, and the operability is thus poor. As a result, the working efficiency is low.
Moreover, as described above, in the preparation of synthetic picture using the general purpose computer, the cost of the entirety of the apparatus is increased, but a wide variety of processing can be made. To the contrary, in order to prepare a synthetic picture, complicated operations such as selection of the synthetic picture, designation of trimming and setting of picture synthesis position, and so on are required. In addition, with such general purpose computer, there are problems such as low picture processing speed of synthesis of picture data, and poor operability.
This invention has been made in view of the above-described problems, and its object is to provide a picture editing apparatus which can improve working efficiency, and which can improve operability.